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STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. We've been looking into some of the downsides of green energy. The government has already spent a lot of effort on biofuels. Now, lawmakers are considering how to encourage billions of dollars of investment on alternatives, from ethanol to wind to solar energy. Even as they consider the possibilities, new analysis by environmental experts shows alternative energy comes with stiff costs. Here's NPR's Christopher Joyce.
CHRISTOPHER JOYCE: Rob McDonald says people used to laugh when he argued that remaking the energy economy could affect millions of acres of land. As a landscape ecologist at the Nature Conservancy, McDonald decided to prove his point. He analyzed the energy law passed in 2007 that called for billions of gallons of ethanol from corn to replace gasoline. He also looked at two climate bills that encourage alternative energy. What he found was a prescription for what he calls ...